a polymath zapper

a polymath zapper

intuitive interface

I use WordPress for this blog, and happy with it. But it’s not for everybody: you need a database, it’s very impressive, plugins, themes, users, comments, regular update, kinda geeky install and the default installment is 7.9 mb.
And I needed a CMS for a small website/portfolio; it needs something small, not impressive (visually), easy to set up, no database, PHP and light!

So I started to look for: light/lightweight/nano/simple CMS (no database/flat file storage)
This is the list I compared it to:Very important: free (and not a pro-$$-account), no database/flat file storage, lightweight, easy to install, WYSIWYG editors, PHPImportant: easy to use/beautiful , normal data editing, file manager, easy to create templates/CSS for this systemNice to have: gallery, no need for multiple users (no a must), no need for backup, no need for multiple languages (english is fine), contact form, html-editor (export to files)

I went a little overboard with the search for the ideal CMS for me.
After reviewing them I gave them a grade from 1->10 and to make it even easier: the highest grade is the one I choose for this project.
So here a little overview to make it somewhat easier to read about my findings:

It brings to the forefront design and design integration into one of the most neglected CMS niches – Databaseless Web-Design and Development. LotusCMS is free and more than free, it is licensed under the General Public Licence under which you may copy, change and redistribute this software to suit your needs!

Features:

A plugin system using the concept of observable classes.

A lightweight core, into which everything else is plugged in.

Multiple users and user roles.

WYSIWYG content editor.

A blogging system.

Improved general usability and design.

An advanced speed caching system for standard pages, with up to a 3 times average speed increase for server-side processing.

With the further evolution of razorCMS, our goal for the next milestone release is to offer true choice, by offering a more simple intuitive approach, choice of mySQL or flat file storage, and pure razorCMS code putting razorCMS on the map as an original CMS solution with no connection to other CMS solutions.

Features:

really small, and works out of the box.

You need to install ‘blade’-plugins to add more functionality

Flat File design, no database required

Simple, fast and security conscious installer

Small and fast footprint

Modular framework

Support for multilingual translations

Multiple infobar content displayed on single page

External links in link menus

Easily modified

Easily extendable via blade pack add-on interface

Multi level menus

Security check for file permissions

Full file manager

3 user accounts with varying levels of access (good for handing over to clients)

gpEasy is a lightweight CMS (built without the use of a database) which helps us reach our goal of making it fast and easy to use right down to the installation. Once installed, you’ll find an intuitive interface that let’s you edit your entire site in WYSIWYG fashion.

GetSimple is an XML based lite Content Management System. To go along with its best-in-class user interface, we have loaded it with features that every website needs, but with nothing it doesn’t. GetSimple is truly the simplest way to manage a small-business website.

Written in PHP – it runs on Linux/Apache servers, or on Win32 with Apache or IIS

Inbuilt WYSIWYG editor (both on IE and Mozilla) – or other alternative editors

Uploading of images and files

Link validation

Search function

Print version option

User downloads from their HTML content file

Simple mailform included

Easy setup of multi language sites

PHP-scripting may be included within the content (named CMSimple Scripting)

Integration with 3rd party scripts possible (using CMSimple scripting

Online editing of system configuration

wwwaut login available

Automatic backup on logout

Documentation

Special download folder

Easy install (but it uses the default settings)

Install: 117kb

it took me a while to find the login: add &login (index.php?welcom&login) or ?login (index.php?login)
It’s not the most beautiful cms out there, but it’s very complete
don’t know how useful the split on H-tags is in submenu’s
It’s quite intuitive which is unexpected!

phpSQLiteCMS is good if you want to quickly set up a small website without needing to spend a lot of time studying, installing and configuring (as SQLite is file-based, it just runs “out of the box”). But note that it is no large-scale content management system – it’s a tiny and simple one!

Features:

Simple and lightweight

Runs out of the box (no database setup required)

Optional caching to save server performance

Supports news

overview and

commentable pages

photo galleries

search function

RSS feeds and

XML sitemaps

need some explaining, very complete, quite technical

Install 1.2 mb

It’s an easy instal but you need to use the default inlog data–>user: admin // pass: admin

The default install is also the documentation.
Which means that you need to remove a lot of pages before you can start clean

SkyBlueCanvas is an easy-to-use Web Content Management System, that makes it simple to keep the content of your site fresh. You simply upload the software to your web server, and you are ready to start adding text and pictures to your website.

some advertisement in install
strange question about location of website ?? (yes, I want to install it here)
user interface could be better, but that probably because the developer wants to make some money out of it (can’t blame em)

nanoCMS created by Kalyan Chakravarthy in 2007 is a php open source, gpl licensed flat file content management system (CMS). It does not use a MySQL database and is ideal for small websites. It is a very small CMS package (hence the nano part). Doesn’t take long to setup and is very simple to create pages and edit content. As it is small and doesn’t use a mysql database….. it’s fast, very fast.

Features:

one user

one template

WYSIWYG editor

Install: 2,2 mb

Easy install but not configurable at first // username: admin // password: ch4ng3th1s

It’s an easy instal but you need to use the default inlog data–>user: admin // pass: admin
Meta is perhaps not so obvious for a unexperienced user
Admin is not ugly, but to call it beautiful is taking it to far.

All the basic features of an FTP application like renaming, deleting, copying, and uploading

(Of course, for more complex processes like batch renaming or mass uploads/deletions, you’re going to want to break out an actual FTP program.)

Gracefully degrading CSS and Javascript

100% re-brandable with title/footer text stored in variables and a modifiable filename

Externally hosted CSS and images for smaller file size

(But you can switch it out to your own stylesheet if you need to!)

Smart alert if you try to leave without saving your edits

very small but extremely technical (you need to know about programming)

Install 78 kb (with example site)

It’s not for this project, I think it’s a great starting point for creating your own CMS, but in this case I’ll give it a 4.

Note

Lite CMS I also tested, but didn’t fit one (but probably more) feature that I described above:
autocms(can’t get it to work), editeasy (can’t get it to work), whitecrane (difficult to use, BBCode), le.cms (couldn’t get it to work)
This doesn’t mean they are bad; they just don’t fit my needs.

My advice to all cms builders: create a minimal template series so designers have a starting point for their designs
simple stuff: header, horizontal navigation, vertical navigation, content, sidebar